Eton Chinese Student Creates Free Classroom Tutoring Platform

Liyuan Jiang(Leon), a student at Eton, and his classmates founded the Scientia Foundation, which aims to provide free STEM tutoring for underprivileged students, promote equal rights in education, and help address the general lack of STEM education in the UK and around the world. Liyuan Jiang and co-founder Siddhant Bhargava were also awarded the third prize in the Side Hustle Initiative 2022 by FinnCap Group for creating the project.

The Scientia Foundation currently has a team of 14 volunteer students, all enrolled at Eton. The team provides free one-to-one GCSE tutoring in chemistry, physics, biology, computer science and math to over 35 students from over 20 state schools each week.

Speaking about the founding of the Scientia Foundation, Leon Jiang, who is the Chairman, said that during the global outbreak of the epidemic, the media reported many educational inequalities caused by the lockdowns. As a result, he and another founder, Siddhant Bhargava, realized that many students attending public schools in relatively poor areas were unable to access private school-level online education like Eton's during the lockdown.

Using video conferencing platforms like Zoom, Leon and his team allowed volunteer students to provide free online instruction to sponsored students. This not only helps break the vicious cycle of educational inequality between epidemics, but also helps students who are struggling but have the ability to learn to reach their potential.

The program also has a "win-win" aspect. Most of the students receiving tutoring are receiving UK government subsidies; a small number of volunteer students, who also receive grants on a regular basis, are paid a small fee for tutoring so that they can better complete their studies.

Speaking about Scientia's future plans at the Side Hustle Initiative awards ceremony, Leon said he hopes to further expand the foundation, recruit more volunteers, and help more students.

Jiang Liyuan,18, is originally from Shanghai, China. He moved to Singapore at the age of 5, lived in Melbourne, Australia from the age of 7, and came to the UK to study at the age of 11. He has a wide range of interests, including photography, piano, tennis and table tennis. In the future, he aspires to pursue a career in technology.